How Did You Make Your First Sale Online?

[quickregister]

I know there are many very experienced marketers here and everyone is usually talking about making zillions online but often the first sale is the most important one. Many aspiring marketers would love just to make one darn sale. It is one thing to hear about someone else's success but to experience even a little success yourself can make the difference between creating a full time income or giving up.

I would like to know what your first sale was. How did you market the product or service? What did you sell next? I think it would be interesting to hear the results. Not only will this give ideas and hope to real newbies but it might even be good for us more experienced marketers to review the basics and see what got us here.

The first product I sold online was a weight loss tea that was eventually banned and then unbanned. It was really good and packed quite a jolt. The brand had a bit of a cult following so I put up a really simple website with the name of the company and my 800 number. I think I used Netscape composer which was free in Netscape to create the website. I think I even used a free web host with ads. I answered the phone myself too. If it rang I picked it up. There were a fair amount of people who had lost track of their distributors and not too much competition for the company name on the internet. I got some calls, took their credit card info over the phone and then purchased the product wholesale from the company. They in turn shipped it. I would make 3 or 4 sales a month with this. I then tried to figure out a way to get leads to sell this stuff and I found I could make more money selling the advertising than the actual tea. And now here we are.

How about you?

Thanks

Matt

[digigo]

can not remember the exact amount.. my first sale is a click worth about $0.05 reported on Google adsense account.. but it did get me excited .. that is the same reason why I think PPC is good start for any internet marketers

[quickregister]

$.05 cool! I think we should have a contest for the lowest first sale amount. But you saw some success which is the most important thing. As much as I get mad at Google sometimes Adsense really is a terrific program. I have done very well with them too.

[GarryMSayer]

The first thing I ever sold online was on ebay. It was a really nice collection of four photographs from my holiday in Cornwall.

I sold all four of them as desktop backgrounds for a £1.00.

I thought I'd easy sell a million at that price because the photographs were lovely and captured Cornwall's raw and barren beauty perfectly - even if I do say so myself!

ONE MONTH LATER

1,000,000 - 999,957 = 43 (TOTAL SALES)

Not a bad start online eh?

Brings back fond memories and a tear to the eye.

If anyone is reading my ramblings and purchased four Cornish desktop backgrounds about five years ago on Ebay, I'd like to say thank you and give you a massive virtual hug for giving me the motivation and conviction to follow my dreams.

Garry.

[WD Mino]

Hmm.

My first sale was in a giveaway for 97$ once you get that first sale things seem to become easier whether is just gaining the confidence or "figuring out the formula"

Cheers
-WD

[Zeus66]

My first online sale was over the phone. LOL The very first thing I did way back in like 1995 was offer a resume writing service. I was still working for "the man" in those days, and it was a neat little weekend job for extra income. The response took me completely by surprise, which is what spurred me on to making online marketing my career. I think that first woman I wrote a resume and cover letter for paid me about $45. She got a bargain!

John

[lioncirth]

I had started looking into affiliate marketing and I put together a pretty poor site selling a internet marketing guide. I think it was around 2001-2002 (at a rough guess) I spent time on it and eventually gave up.

About a year later I received a cheque for $100 as I had made a sale (I was VERY shocked) As I was going through collage etc I was to busy to put time into it.

Started in Affiliate marketing again in 2008 and have been doing it on and off since then. Although over the past 3-4 months I have decided to concentrate on it to hopefully be able to turn it into a full time job

[summer07]

First sale was a used book on Amazon back in 2000 or so. I think I made a couple of dollars. But I went on to sell quite a few, actually. Over the course of about a year, I made about $300.

Then Ebay. I sold a sewing machine and some hand dyed fabric -- made about $300 there, too.

I sold my first digital product here in the WF about a year and a half ago -- a PLR report with graphics -- again, made a couple of hundred.

But after that there was no looking back. I was completely hooked with having online businesses, and have been selling PLR and my writing services online ever since.

I still do some work with my real estate businesses in the 'real' world, but I really love being able to work from my laptop.

[Dennis Gaskill]

I think we just had a thread like this a few days ago, but what the heck...

My first sale was custom graphics. Rather than setting a price, I told the guy to just pay me what he thought it was worth. He paid me $35.00 for a sand and water background that took me about 30-45 minutes to make. I thought that was great!

[bravo75]

crap article > even crappier blog > and an even crappier clickbank product > bingo my first sale. $10.71

[Jeff Bronson]

My first sale was a few items to one person in my online store after a couple of weeks being live... what a surprise as I was hoping for just a single item sale!

[shecky]

I don't count Ebay as a first sale. My first real sale was an training product for the MLM industry. Came through my autoresponder, and POOF....I got THE message that we all long for... "you've just made a commission!" And yeah, I did the commission dance...lol!

[Brittany Lynch]

The first product I sold online for myself was a reverse phone detective site affiliate offer... I was so surprised when I made the sale...but it was great I didn't even have my own landing page...def not a strategy I would suggest now, but I was new

[Swastik]

It was some kind of service if I remember correctly. Probably some article.

[MurphSmurf]

I wrote one (count it: one) Squidoo lens in January '08. About two weeks later I started making sales which snowballed into over $200.

I'm not sure exactly how I did it, as I was too much of a newbie to analyze my traffic/CTR, although I did notice I was ranking #1 on Google for a long-tail keyword. The lens has since been deleted by the Squidoo thought police.

It was about binaural beats if you're curious.

[rawservices]

Packaged up my design services and began selling in 2007.

First package sold: $50 banner :-)

It definitely helps to know how other people paved their way. The hardest part is the first step.

[savvywriter]

My first sale online was actually a 'link service' way back a couple of years ago. I earned .05 for a single link made. Then I started writing articles for some webmasters/ website owners for $4 per article in many different products they promoted. I also tried affiliate marketing. And now I am moving forward to fulfill my goals. Finding more ways to make money online, found out that buying and selling websites is a good opportunity to start with. Aside from here - WF, I also found a place where to go to buy a quality websites and where to sell them.

[hourstoincome]

About two or three years ago I got very interested in ebay and made my first online sale on ebay. Other than that , my first sale for my website was with adsense. They were both great experiences !

[nevillealston]

Well the first sale I ever made was back in winter 07. It was for my first clickbank product I ever created.. I believe it came from putting my entire sales page up on usfreeads . And boy I cannot tell you just how friklin excited I really was to make my first sale within 24 hours of that posting !!!

And since then, my most "exciting" email that I ever get still to this day are for those clickbank sale notifications!!

[Scott Henderson]

For my IM career, my first sale was an Adsense click also, I can't remember the exact amount (pennies), but I do remember saying to myself that this really works. And like so many have said, I got excited. I remember shortly thereafter when my daily Adsense revenue went over $1.00, woohoo that was big!!!

[nevillealston]

And as I wrote this post another clickbank sale came in... Whoo hoo!! Man is this IM exciting!!!

[JMPruitt]

The first product I sold was a relationships book. Sold it through building relationships with people in a forum. Any place you can meet people, and get to know them as people instead of customers will set you up more for success in the long run.
Most of my customers where people I took the meet before asking them to buy.

[Steve Peters Benn]

I think my first online sale was back in 1997 /1998 for a shareware product I designed and a friend produced. I used a very bizarre payment processor and they took months to send me my cheques. Which were in Dollars, which my bank hated, as my young persons bank account gave me free international currency services - I don't think they ever saw someone of that age taking advantage.

We ended up being featured in some German magazine and sales went crazy for a bit.

Good times.

[Ronak Shah]

I used to mostly make money online from visiting forums by offering my writing services.

I had been hired by another marketer via twitter to write a report on SEO for which I got paid $399. In fact, I have made my first affiliate sales using twitter.

Though now it's certainly going to change quite a lo. I mean I am going to focus more on things that make me more money rather than focusing on something that makes me less money. I think it's all about taking action.

I mean it was wonderful when I hit affiliate sales from twitter. I never imagined in my life it could be so beautiful.

Affiliate marketing rocks!

[Zack Lim]

I make my first sale online when I tried to drive traffic directly to my affiliate link using one of the PPC company which has already close down. The feeling was great and I realized during that time that it is possible to make money online

Zack

[Rufus Steele]

If we're allowing Adsense () then that was mine.

Otherwise it was a study guide for a nursing exam - found the subject by one of those glorious flukes whilst researching something else, found a company running an affiliate programme on their own guide for the exam and bingo - 2 + 2 = 4 and there was my first sale!

$15.00 I think.

Good old days eh?!

[maxglobal]

Hi,
Funny you should ask - I've just got an e-mail from my chums at TE Toolbox and I've made a sale!
Great, this is sooooo important not just for yourself but to show non-networkers (who DO NOT understand-you know who they are! ) that although everything seems 'virtual' the cash is real.
Success Always,

Phil.
philhammondonline.com

[theemperor]

Forex Robot!

Sale was worth about $300 in commission to me. Got it using $10 in cheap traffic

Not being able to repeat since

[cragar]

My very first income was made by article marketing and that is what I specialize in now. I used an affiliate product from click bank called google ultimatum. just created a landing page and drove traffic by writing articles. Very easy to do and NO INVESTMENT as you do not have to even have the landing page. that was for building my list ... but not necessary.

[mariahm]

Google Adsense, and then clickbank. Now i'm making money doing SEO for other websites.

[captkirk]

Hi Matt,

The first thing that I sold was a survey site which was purchased from a Clickbank Mall that I was promoting.

I can't remember how much I earned from the sale but I was highly excited that I sold something online.

The advertising method that I was using at the time was Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

[RyanT]

my first sale was a few cents from adsense, my first clickbank sale was about $40 and I can't exactly remember but I think it came from safelist mailing. Who knew? it never worked before and I don't think it has worked since but it did work once.
looking forward to more sales and much more consistency

[EFTReikiSuzanne]

I had been struggling as a newish business to sell my courses. My webdesigner put the first few online for me, and all of a sudden, I had a full workshop when three attendees bought online.

It has been a matter of trial and error since, and i wish I knew then what I know now. Now I'm hoping to learn more so I can decide on how to move forward in a way that's right for me.

[doylesoft]

In 1997ish, I had a simple free website that I put together with Notepad. I offered a $5.95 cable TV descrambler report. I advertised on UseNet exclusively. I started to get checks, money orders, and cash in the mail. (I didn't take credit cards.) I didn't squeeze what I could've out of the venture, but it was exciting to see my efforts pay off.

[quickregister]

Originally Posted by doylesoft

In 1997ish, I had a simple free website that I put together with Notepad. I offered a $5.95 cable TV descrambler report. I advertised on UseNet exclusively. I started to get checks, money orders, and cash in the mail. (I didn't take credit cards.) I didn't squeeze what I could've out of the venture, but it was exciting to see my efforts pay off.

Isn't it fun getting money orders in the mail? I sold CDs of an rock comedy band I produced and I loved to get those funky money orders with hand scribbled notes where to send the CD. Low tech feels good sometimes. Hmmm?

[Arfan]

Hm My first sale was selling some Wii Product and I used Article marketing and within the first week I scored my first sale and then my journey to affiliate had begun

[Chris Kent]

First sale was made via an, ahem, "adult" blog.

[Online Business Mentor]

eBay: Simple , Easy and a Steal for anyone that knows how to do internet marketing properly...but as a newbie..easy too

[Nickolie0990]

I got my first sale online using article and social media marketing. I was promoting a Clickbank product, which I think is how everybody or most of everybody start out in this community.

[DianneH]

I actually pick up work through Elance and the lawyer that I am working for bought a subscription to my BlueHost hosting service! It can't be any easier than that right? Now, of course, I have learned how to leverage Affiliate programs and have some of the links right there on my home page.

[Caden]

I would probably have to say Amazon.com. I tried Ebay, but it didn't work and I lost money on fees. Selling on Amazon is better because if what you list doesn't sell, they don't take any fee. I've sold quite a lot with them.

[klandino]

I just got one right now! Don't know why I just received $18.20 in my paypal account? The only thing that I can think of is it is from something I did months maybe even years ago and for one reason or another someone found one of my affiliate sites. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS FOR OR WHY I GOT IT!

Yeah me.

[Neil Morgan]

Well, here's the short version.

When I launched the first version of AutoResponse Plus in 2001 I was posting in forums such as this. The main one was the superb (but now defunct) Internet Marketing Challenge forum.

I invited people to sign up to my pre-launch list, saying that the first 100 would get the new product free.

The next 100 would get it for $37.

All those were snapped up and that started the whole viral marketing thing going.

Cheers,

Neil

[AffiliateKungfu]

I do not understand why a first sale is something to be so over-excited about.

Since a huge percentage of Affiliate Marketers are spending more money than they make, it is understandable that a first sale is an unexpected and explosive breakthrough, much like a wonderful miracle!

When I got my first sale some time back, I was somewhat pleased, but breaking even was top of my mind then. Of course as one progresses, one's threshold of expectation increases too.

[NY1]

My first sale was an e-book that I created that sold for $ 47.00

I have to say it was exciting, especially since two more came in on the same day.

That's what hooked me.

1 day, 3 sales and $136 in my Paypal account.

(Of course I had built a list for about two weeks before that and had about 500 people on it when I sent out the first e-mail with the offer.)

[scorpion]

Many years ago, I created a website selling a wide range of ebooks for only five bucks each. I offer to sell a duplicate of the whole website (with all the writeups and ebooks) for a few bucks. I was excited when I got my first sale.

But at the time I didn't know how to promote my online business. I thought if I build a good website, the traffic will find me naturally. Obviously it didn't happen and the website died subsequently.

It is an awakening to experience first hand that people do buy online from me , that it is a real business, and that Internet marketing works. That was the beginning of my Internet marketing adventure.

Now I write articles for people all over the world in the comfort of my home and I get paid for my service. It's real. It works.

[GrantFreeman]

My first was on America Online about a year after it's launch.

I had no idea what the hell I was doing, but I was good at graphics, saw that other designers were creating graphics for database programs and selling them.

I decided I could do better.

Didn't sell much. But just the thought of getting money for something that only cost me time amazed me.

Grant

[sdentrepreneur]

November 2007, my 3rd week of Internet Marketing and I earned $1,000 from that sale.
I have been with the same company ever since. The lead came from Business Opportunity.Com.

[farasens1]

I made around a buck with Amazon affiliates selling some cream for women years ago. I just put a page on the web, got some traffic and the clients came fast.

[DaveHughes]

My first sale was a blogging job I picked up a couple of years ago...$10 for a post.

I actually worked the "blogger for hire" thing for quite a while; wound up taking my wife and kids to Disneyworld off the money from one such job, doing one post per day on weekdays, something I never would have thought would come from a $10 "Yeah, I can write that for you" job.